


Here lies William Byers

by beepbeepliv



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, F/M, I dunno I read that Peter Parker fic and got inspired, I'll link it a couple chapters in so as to avoid spoilers, M/M, Siblings Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Will Byers Needs a Hug, sort of character study ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:40:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28199289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beepbeepliv/pseuds/beepbeepliv
Summary: Will could fight against the monsters every day for the rest of his life, he was fine with that, but he couldn’t let him hurt his family. If it was them or him, there wasn’t even a choice.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Will Byers/Dustin Henderson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Here lies William Byers

**Author's Note:**

> not me being home for Christmas, handing in my final assignment and then starting new fic instead of socialising with my family. we love that for me.

#  **Jane**

_2019\. Now._

Pain. All Jane could feel was pain. White hot pain that radiated over her limbs, crawled through her veins and filled up her lungs, drowning her in anguish. It rendered her vision blurry and made both the scratch of her clothes against her body and the steady constancy of her feet on the ground feel simultaneously like too much and nothing at all. It was almost as if her other senses were becoming less heightened, compensating, just so she could experience the full extent of her torture. She gasped, choking up and as her screams got momentarily caught in her throat, her limbs locked, and she fell to her knees. The chatter that had previously surrounded her devolved into white noise and she distantly realised she must have dropped her glass, if the painful pinpricks spreading over her shins was any indication; the smash must have alerted the rest of the party in the living room. Distantly, Jane was grateful, a part of her wanted to yell for her friends to come help her, to come save her, but more presently the words she wanted to scream were – ‘Stay away! Stay as far away from me as you can!’

Obviously, she wasn’t exactly in the state to do either of those things. As it stood now, all she could manage was rolling unto her back, off the jagged pieces of glass on the ground but that only served to put more pressure on her lungs and further shorten her breaths.

“Jay are yo—oh my God. Guys get in here, JANE!!” Max was the first one in, immediately dropping down, sweeping the glass away with her bare arm and kneeling beside the frozen girl. Jane wanted to lean into her touch, garner any bit of comfort she could but moving was torture, even more so than just lying there and enduring it. She felt tears pouring from her eyes as a new burst of pain welled up in her thighs, travelling up from her knees at an alarming pace.

It took Dustin placing a hand over her mouth before she realised the others had run in. it was a beat later that she realised he’d covered her mouth because she was screaming. Blood-curdling, throat straining wails that were sure to get Hopper called and worry the Holloways, next door. Not necessarily in that order.

Jane had no clue what was happening, well that was a lie. She had an inkling, but she didn’t even want to imagine that as being a possibility. Her breath was pushed out of her as the pain accelerated up to her stomach, nearing her heart and she knew her suspicions were correct. She curled up on herself, gripping unto Max’s arm so hard the redhead was sure she’d be bruised the next day.

“No,” she managed to whisper as she felt the air surrounding her begin to thrum, knowing her secret was about to be revealed to all their friends, that the fragile life that they had been building up here was about to dissolve right in front of her eyes, that she was about to be alone—actually alone..

“What the fuck?” she heard vaguely.

“Jay… Jane, what is going on?”

She felt them take a few steps back but didn’t blame them, the spots around her where they had just been resting must have become uncomfortably warm, she wished she could flee too. Jane felt like she was burning, which she was. Or more specifically, a part of her was burning away. The part that linked her and Will.

“It’s Will,” she managed to croak out just before the pain shot up to her heart and right back out again, lighting up every nerve on its way. She screamed, and for a few moments all she saw was blue. When she came to, she was surrounded once more and Max was crying, Lucas was on the phone and her head was in Dustin’s lap.

“Oh thank fuck,” he said, brushing a hand through her hair. “I—I think, guys- guys, she’s up,” Jane’s mouth tasted like ash and her hands felt like lead, she couldn’t move even if she’d tried but she knew what must have happened. He was gone, and so was his magic. Her veil had been lifted; she was lucky they hadn’t abandoned her.

“Jane- oh my God. Fuck you! You scared me! Holy shit. Are you— you look…”

“Okay what the fuck was all that, are you okay? Are you—you?”

“Will’s dead,” Jane stated, exhausted but knowing they needed to know before she passed out, “He—he’s dead,”

* * *

_December 2011_

It felt like an eternity before her screams stopped. Her throat felt raw and her vision was blotchy through her tears. She heaved breaths trying to take in as much air as possible now that the pounding in her head had finally stopped. They didn’t get breaks; she knew she had to make the most of these few moments. It only took her an instant to realise that something was wrong, but that alone was an instant too long and by the time she had regained enough consciousness to focus, she heard it. It was her brother.

“She needs to rest! You’ll kill her!” oh no. She scrabbled at the wall, trying to pull herself up to warn him, to stop him, anything! She would rather she bared the grunt of the torture; she was good at that. Ten wasn’t built to take pain, not like her.

“I—I’m okay. I can—I can go… again! I can go again.” she choked out from the floor, wiping away the blood that had dripped from her nose. It was too late though. Dr Xavier had that look on his face again, and she knew there was nothing she could say that would stop him from ‘disciplining’ her brother.

“She rests, when I **say** she can rest, Ten,” he said coldly taking a step toward the other end of the room where the boy stood, unmoving, fingers curled into fists, “and if she dies, then we’ll make sure the next pair of you are strong enough to undertake the training,” the Doctor finished, smug when he noticed the lick of fire lighting up the small boys eyes. Predictably, he lunged for the Doctor, but Xavier was expecting it, he swung out to the side, laying his gloves on Ten’s shoulder. The boy screamed in agony, falling to his knees instantly and there was a soft cry from the other side of the room.

Xavier turned to face her, and his lips curled in distaste at the obvious fear racking her small frame. She sat curled in the corner as far away as possible, hand pressed over her lips, brown eyes red and wide with worry, brimming with unshed tears. He never agreed to giving the newer models more humanity, it made them weaker. No-one wants a scared soldier; they die first in battle.

He made his way across the room, taking his time, and stood over her, much the way he had with her brother, hand raised ready to strike, “are you going to behave, or do you also need to be reminded how?” Eleven nodded frantically, looking past him to glance at Ten and beg him to co-operate just this once, she feared he wouldn’t make it through the day if he didn’t, however that was when she noticed a strange look in his eye- a fury she had never seen before.

“Ten?” she managed to ask, before the boy let out what would probably be best described as a scream, but it was so much more than that. Jane could feel the air particles shaking around her and it almost felt like her inside were growing too large for her body to withhold. “what are you doing?” she yelled, slamming her hands over her ears.

But it was like he wasn’t there anymore, he just kept screaming ad screaming until the lights exploded and they were in darkness, until the doctor collapsed, until Jane was sure she might pass out. Then the sound just stopped, suddenly. Janes ears were ringing, and her vision was black speckled with white dots.

“Ten?” she whisper-yelled frantically, thinking the worst, “TEN?” she felt a hand grab hers and squeeze tight.

“Eleven we have to go, now’” he whispered, pulling her up from the ground and immediately into a sprint. The ‘hospital was pitch black and eerily silent as the pair ran through, and for a second, only a second, Jane felt fear at just what her brother could be capable of.

_March 2012_

The storm had finally broken and the calm that fell over the field was eerie. The light of the moon was as sand bleeding through the smattering of thin clouds that were the palms of mother nature, it reflected off the dewy grass like diamonds, covering the ground in an almost ethereal shimmer. The crickets screamed as dusk fell, mirroring the morning bird song that was yet to be composed and as the clocks struck nine, all that could be heard was the steady pattering of feet against the damp, patchy grass.

It had only taken a few months before they had come to the conclusion that it was impossible for the pair to survive on their own. Sure, maybe their love and dedication towards one another had made then powerful in the lab, but out here, in the real world, it seemed to add nought. They couldn’t force people to help them, they couldn’t conjure sustenance or shelter, they couldn’t be sure they were ever safe and the cruel winter months were fast approaching. Eleven was sure they wouldn’t make it.

“We can’t keep living like this,” Ten had whispered into her hair one night. He was right. She was sick.

They didn’t know what was wrong. Nothing like this had ever come upon them in their time trapped with papa so Ten had managed to convince himself it was a human ailment. Eleven was helpless as she watched him get rejected from all the medicine stores, he tried to ask for help. They didn’t seem to believe him. she wondered if many humans lied to get free medicine and why they would do that.

Rejected yet again Ten travelled back to the bench he’d perched Eleven on. She was swaddled in his hoodies, bundled as best as he could make her.

I don’t know what to do Eleven—I- I don’t know,” he cried softly, and Eleven tried to shush him, curling into his embrace.

“It’s okay,” she croaked, knowing that it wouldn’t be really. She wasn’t getting better and Ten didn’t know how to be without her. They were stronger together and they both knew it. She wasn’t sure how long they sat there, huddled together, but their calm was broken when she heard a soft voice. She tensed in Ten’s arms, not daring to look up. After. A few moments of muffled speech she felt the presence leave and lifted her head. Ten had a strange look on his face.

“Who was that?” she asked, looking down at the package in his hand.

“A lady,” he said softly, after a while. “She gave us this,”

Eleven peered into the bag and frowned in confusion. It was full of clothes and a small bottle. She lifted it and gave it a sniff.

“Smells gross, like lab,” she argued, immediately suspicious, not knowing how to believe that anyone would be trying to help them

“I think its medicine,” he said softly, understanding her apprehension, “she seemed nice, I think she wanted to help.”

Which brings us back to the present. The twin pattering of feet against the squishy grassy mud. Distantly, Eleven thought, it was rude of them to break the calm of night like this. They were as speedboats in the still lake, cutting through the night-time air, their heaved breaths rang out loudly over the crickets and the tension they held radiated out, ruining the peaceful still of the night. She wished she had the energy to feel bad about it.

Ten leant her against the fence as he went to get help and Jane jumped when she caught her new reflection in a puddle, besides the obvious distortion from the water there many things wrong with what she saw. She looked, different, completely and though she knew it was necessary, it didn’t make it any less jarring. The lady had already seen Ten’s face so it was too late to do much to him except change his hair, which now fell in messy dark curls across his face, shaved short at the sides, sharpen his nose and jaw and make his eyes lighter, a greyish blue, not a massive change but they assumed the horde would be looking for them both, together not separately, so they hoped it was enough to keep them hidden.

Still, the steel grey eyes that stared back at her were unnerving almost as unnerving as the black fringe that lay in front of them. Her nose, which was once small and flat – was now upturned and conspicuous, arching into a prominent cupid’s bow that lay over her mouth. The most unnerving however were the patches of caramel that spread across her body. She supposed Ten had been trying to change her skin completely, but his magic had waned, leaving her looking a bit like one of the animals the pair had come across in their past few days of homelessness. She didn’t mind, she thought it looked interested, but she doubted it would help them blend in.

It wasn’t too pressing of an issue on her mind as there was nothing, she could do about it, Ten was out of energy and his magic was always unreliable when he didn’t eat, and Jane was only getting worse. They had no other choice but to keep it. Most of the blotches of different coloured skin could be easily hidden by clothes anyway so she figured they would be able to slip under the radar for a few days – until he got better enough to fix it.

Suddenly Ten was back, jolting her out of thought, and with the help of a stranger was escorting her into a house. The sudden warmth she was hit with was so welcome, it made her emotional. She had forgotten she could ever be this warm and as the darkness overtook her the final fleeting thought she had was that she never wanted to be cold again.

When she woke up, she felt better than she had in months and was briefly too enraptured in the massive jacket she’d been sweltered in to notice the tension in the air. She did, however, feel the remnants of magic in the air and looking up, she saw that everyone was staring at Ten like he had two heads, Eleven didn’t need to have been awake moments ago to know why. She curled in on herself, ready to be sent away, shunned or experiment on once more. But the silence just stretched on, until the girl with fire for hair whispered ‘cool’ and all the small people gathered around Ten.

The larger people came towards Eleven and she wanted to stop them, wanted to push them away and reach for her brother, but the smallest large person. The softest looking one, pulled her close and wrapped her arms around her and suddenly Eleven couldn’t think any more about escape past the sudden lightness in her bones.

_June 2012_

Ten fit in a lot better than she did—or Will, Eleven supposed she needed to get used to referring to her brother by that now, by _name_ , and herself as Jane rather than Eleven. _Names_. Names given to them by their new _family_. It was a crazy thing for her to wrap her head around – having a family. But she knew that as hard as it was to drill the names into her mind now, they would eventually stick, she loved them too much to forget anytime soon

“Jane, Jane, Jane,” she whispered softly, trying out different inflections of the name to see which one made her heart flutter more as she walked slightly behind Will and the boy who had taken his fancy. That was another new thing, Will being interested in someone else. Will had never been very interested in making other friends back at the facility, Jane had always been the ‘extrovert’ of the two. But out here, in the real world, Will had transformed. Like a butterfly. He was all fluttering eyes and stolen glances, and the boy had no chance but to fall for it hook line and sinker.

Surprisingly, Jane wasn’t jealous either. If anything, it was nice to see her brother go for what he wanted, after years of being forced to abide by someone else’s law. It would be ridiculous to be jealous that someone had stolen her brother’s attention when they clearly made him very happy. Jane felt joy in watching them.

It didn’t stop her from smiling like a mad woman when the starstruck boy kissed Wills hand and at the matching blush staining both their faces.

“Shut up,” Will had said.

Jane couldn’t even bring herself to complain that she hadn’t said anything

#  **Will**

_April 2014_

The calm really should have alerted Will that their safety was about to threatened. Whenever the calm peaked, it meant there was a storm approaching and this was the calmest things had been for the pair in over a year.

The lady, Joyce, had damn near forced them to stay. Horrified when Will and Jane had tried to leave after getting their energy back, she’d asked what their plans were, where they’d sleep, how they’d get food and obviously, the kids had no answer. She’d announced then and there that they weren’t going anywhere.

It should have scared him; he knew it scared Jane. It pulled on her visceral need to be in control, to be in the know 24/7. These people were an uncontrollable variable that she would never have risked on her own, Will knew that, but it didn’t scare him. Will trusted them, for some reason. He figured it had something to do with Joyce and her warm brown eyes.

Will was to stay with her and her son while Jane was to stay with the leader of the city, called Hopper. Initially they had protested to being split up, but no one house was able to accommodate them both and eventually Will managed to convince Jane that their pull on the government would be less strong if they weren’t together. It was safer that way.

And it had been.

Things had been going great for two years. They’d started going to school and blended in with the rest of the kids. The longer they spent around the small people, the children, the more they learnt. Their speech got less stilted and awkward, their movements less hesitant and they even started to feel welcome by their surroundings. They began to really live. They got comfortable. That was their mistake.

It came out of nowhere really. Dustin was walking Will to the bike racks where Jane was waiting for him so they could cycle back home together. He flushed when she eyed their joint hands but willed himself not to pull away, knowing the feeling blossoming in his chest wasn’t necessarily a bad one. Dustin made him feel happy, happier than anyone else apart from jane was able to. He wanted to keep him close. He kissed his cheek when they made it to where Jane was, bidding them both goodbye with a nerdy flourish and Will flushed again, rolling his eyes as Jane’s telling smirk but the normally vitriolic action’s effect was lessened by his own matching smile.

They were just about to cycle off when a man approached them and just stood, eyeing from a distance, they paused, looking at each other then back at him suspiciously.

“Hi, can we help you?” Will asked. The man smiled, as if Will was the answer to a puzzle that had plagued him for years.

“Number 10,” he finally spoke. They both felt they blood turn icy. “I’ve been looking for you and Number 11 for years. Finally, I have you back. You will take me to her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Will said, taking a slight step to the side so his body was slightly shielding Jane’s. Stupid and selfless, just like he’d been in the labs.

“I don’t have time for these games, 10,” he pulled his sleeve up slightly and revealed that he was wearing the glove that plagues Will’s dreams, sparking with electricity and glowing like it was somehow charged with more power than it had been back when they were trapped.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeated, stoic, a warning tone playing in his voice.

“Fine. I see you’ve forgotten how this works, 10. We’ll see if you still feel the same once we hit your friend here with—” The scientist had barely lifted his foot up to take a step when Will levelled him with such a dark look, his eyes overtaken by purple smoke and the veins running down to his fingers turning blue. His sentence trailed off.

“No, you won’t,” Will said in a low, dark voice that was unlike anything Jane had ever heard him utter before. For a beat nothing happened. Then, the man choked like all the air had been sucked from his lungs. Slowly, from the bottom up, he began to turn a pale brown and then crumble, each piece braking smaller and smaller until he was nothing more than dust at their feet.

It almost felt like someone else had possesed him. He watched the man fade to specs and felt nothing. No remorse, no guilt. He felt powerful, if anything. He had no clue he was capable of something so intense, but he didn’t regret it. Had Will allowed him to use that glove on his sister, their secret would have been discovered and their lives endangered. He had to protect her, and they had to stay together – always. They were stronger together and they both knew it

That was what he told himself as the last particle of the scientist floated away. He was doing it for her.

“Let’s go home,” he said, getting on his bike, not seeing the shaken look on Jane’s face, or her tear-stained cheeks.

“Okay,” she said near silently, pushing off on her scooter to follow behind him.

_May 2016_

Will loved his little sister, an unspeakable amount, it was plain as day, factual even. Grass is green, a day is 24 hours long, Will loves Jane. There wasn’t a person that knew them that didn’t know he would do anything to keep her from harm. It wasn’t a surprise, for the first 12 years of their lives all they had was each other, they were the only things keeping the other sane in a world full of unspeakable horror; that sort of bond was hard to break.

All these facts considered; his decision still wasn’t an easy one. It should have been really, his life for that of his family and friends – no questions asked really, but Will was selfish – could you blame him? he and Jane had managed to cultivate something amazing from next to nothing over the past few years, he felt like he’d only just had a tase of the good life and he wasn’t ready to lose it.

But he had to. At the end of the day, the love he extended towards his dearests far overcame the selfishness he felt in longing to stay with them, he knew what needed to be done. Although, deciding to do it and actually executing his plan were two completely different hurdles entirely.

To start, he had to gather everything he needed without arousing suspicion, then he needed to find a place where he could carry it out without being found. Both were difficult feats to achieve. Between Dustin and Jane, it rare that Will was alone for up to an hour a day unless he was asleep. Usually that was a quality he loved but when the time came… when the time came, he’d have to find a way around that.

First things first. He needed to gather his ingredients, garlic, clay from Holy ground, pure earth, mandrake root, honey water, his hair, Jane’s hair, his blood, campfire ash and Jezebel root. Now some of those were more straightforward than others. The garlic and honey water he took from Joyce’s kitchen, knowing she wouldn’t mind. He also grabbed some soil from the flower garden outside and purified it with steam in the kitchen that night.

The next day he told Dustin and Jane he was staying back at school to help Miss Hailey with the garden but instead snuck off to the church down the road to scout for clay in the soil. It took him longer than he’d hoped, but eventually he managed to scourge up a handful.

The mandrake and Jezebel roots were tough ones to figure out, Will didn’t have a car or any other means of transport and there was nowhere nearby that sold anything of the sort. So quite frankly, unless he could get help, he was screwed – but there was no-one he could ask for help while keeping everything serious. He was complaining as much to Jonathan, not quite giving him specifics but telling him enough so his brother understood his frustration, when the other boy suggester he buy it online and get whatever it was delivered to the house. That flabbergasted Will which in turn made Jonathan laugh.

Five minutes later they were both sat in front of the house computer as the older boy showed him how Esty worked. Will was pleasantly surprised at how easy it all was.

The campfire ash proved even tougher because that wasn’t something people sold on the Etsy site. It took a few days of planning but eventually he convinced Joyce to let him sleep over at Mikes house. Mrs Wheeler was plenty unreliable so he knew there would be no late-night check outs as he headed off to the nearby town to find some ash. It took all night, hours and hours, to scope out a park with a recently lit campfire but it was worth it in the end when he got the final piece of his potion.

Now, with all his instruments set out in front of him and his location set, it suddenly felt a lot more real. If he went through with this, his closest people would never see him again. He and Jane would never again race down the street to see who could get home first, he and Dustin would never again go out for a fancy meal, pretending they were so much older and larger than life than they actually were, he’d never again get to see Jonathan look at him with so much unconditional love and trust in his eyes that for a second he truly, deeply believed he had a brother.

It would be the end.

Will heaved a deep sigh, and then pushed his gathered ingredients into a box, shoved that in another box and stuffed it in his drawer.

Maybe he was more selfish than he thought.

_December 2018_

Things settled down after a while. They never told anyone the truth about the ghosts of their past – or the ones haunting them in the present. Will reasoned it would only make them worry when there wasn’t really anything they could do to help, and it would just be mean to do that to family. After all, they’d handled it. Everything was going to be fine.

Surprisingly, it actually was. Jane had started to really open up to her foster father and ended up spending half her free time at the Sherriff’s office being another eye for his cases and the other half round at Max’s house. Whenever Will asked, she’d persist that she was only there to get Billy to tell her the details that Hopper wouldn’t, but Will knew she went round even when Billy was out. He didn’t press the situation out of fear that she’d retreat back into herself and get all secretive about her feelings, but he was happy she was finally making this place their home.

Will on the other hand still spent most of his time with Dustin, he still didn’t really understand his feelings towards the other boy or his need to spend more time with him than he did the rest of his friends. But it was a nice sort of confusion and Dustin seemed happy to accommodate him so Will didn’t question it.

It was easy to forget just how different the pair were when they were together, Dustin made it easy for Will to pretend this had always been his life. Though sometimes it was painstakingly obvious. In the furrow of Dustin’s brow when Will had bad days and couldn’t go five minutes without curling up next to him. In the fond exasperation in his voice when Will was confused about Pokémon for the fifth time in the span of an hour. In the gentle way he held Will closer when the small boy saw something that triggered memories he had not yet told Dustin about. It exemplified their differences and sometimes embarrassed Will, but Dustin never made him feel bad about it – just weird and gooey, but a nice weird and gooey.

So of course, it couldn’t last.

Will was walking home from Dustin’s, as his bike was getting the rail fixed, a dopey smile on his face for reasons unbeknownst to him, when he felt it. A chill ran down his spine and spread through his bones. He immediately broke into a sprint, that wasn’t _his_ fear filling his lungs. It was Eleven’s.

He got home, running to the phone to ring Hopper and check on his sister when he felt all the hairs on his arms stand up on edge. He backed up and looked into the living room, counting all his blessing that Jonathan was at an art exhibition with his boyfriend and Joyce was working late.

There on the sofa was Dr Xavier. One of his eyes was grey and clouded over - Will felt a jolt of glee at having caused that - his face was scarred, and his movements seemed stilted, but it was definitely him.

“Number Ten,” he said, and the venom in his voice put Will on edge. “are you going to behave?” Will stepped forward, ready to give him a piece of his mind when he stepped aside to reveal a restrained figure.

“Jane!” he breathed, pausing in his stride. Suddenly her body was overtaken in blue lights as she convulsed before falling back to the ground. Weak electrocution compared to what they were used to, but it had been a while, Will imagined it still hurt. “Stop! Leave her alone!”

“Where is your sister?” the doctor said, ignoring his pleas and hitting her with another burst, “you are _both_ coming back with me _today_. Call her.”

Another burst

“Stop it!” Will cried, watching as Jane started to twitch on the ground, a lick of blue and purple dancing on her twitching fingers. Will felt his heart clench, he couldn’t let anyone discover who Jane was. “Leave her alone!”

“Oh, I think you forget who hold the power here, child.” He said with a cruel laugh, “You got Piotr, but he was nothing compared to me, boy. If you don’t tell me where she is, I’ll spend the next three days making you beg for death. So, I’ll ask again. Tell. Me. Where. She. Is.” Each pause was accompanied by a zap of electricity and by now Jane was positively thrumming with energy, Will watched helpless as the space around her began to thrum with a blue glow.

“Oh,” Will wanted to lash out at how delighted Xavier sounded and how hopeless their situation seemed. “Well, what have we here? Looks like I had her the whole time. This disguise is good work,” he sounded vaguely impressed, leaning down to have a closer look at Jane and grabbing her face, “Your skills are growing, well done.”

“We’re not going with you,” Will stated. Then Xavier scoffed, making the mistake of taking his eyes off Jane, he threw her back down and took a few steps toward Will with. A mocking laugh playing on his tongue.

“and who’s going to stop me? Your puny human family?” he snarked, reaching down and pressing the button to zap Jane again for good measure, this time on full power. He frowned when nothing happened.

“No, but I think she might,” Will said, seeing Jane rise to her feet. Dr Xavier turned around, no doubt to defend himself, but it was far too late. Jane was unresponsive even to Will calling out and suddenly the Doctor screamed in agony and his joints began to fold in on themselves, each bone snapping and folding over until he was nothing more than a pile of flesh and dust on the ground.

“Gross,” Will breathed, glad that Joyce’s living room had wooden panels and not carpeting. He looked back up to his sister when he heard her let out a quick gasp, looking more like herself than a few seconds ago.

“Ew,” Jane said, now coming to, “tell me I didn’t do that,”

“Couldn’t have killed him in a less messy way?” Will asked, exasperated, already looking for cleaning supplies. Jane looks at the mess for a while before looking up and smiling.

“He didn’t deserve a better death,” she said solemnly, and Will couldn’t help but nod in response. She was right, it was a fitting way for him to die.

* * *

_2019\. Now_

Will paced the room, torn between checking over his supplies once more or packing them away and never looking at the hoard again, as he once again questioned if he was really going through with this. He had to, he knew he did, but it didn’t make it any easier to make the final decisions.

Sighing, he dropped to the floor by his bed, reaching out to stroke the five letters he’d pre-written before swallowing, picking them up and placing them on his bedstand where they would definitely be found. He turned before he could linger, look at the addressed letters – the people he was leaving, and change his mind.

It was too late for that. He grabbed the potion and his bag on his way and forced his feet to take him out. Out of the house, down the street and into the woods. Far away and far too quickly for anymore doubts to plague him.

He was doing this.

It took a lot quicker than Will remembered it taking to reach Castle Byers – a hide-out he had made for himself during his brief escapades over the past few years – Will wanted more time, but he knew he couldn’t expect any more especially not when he’d been selfish enough. Jane needed him to do this. His disguise was abysmal, and he just seemed to act as a beacon for their past.

Usually, they would go it together but that run in with Dr Xavier scared him, he’d gotten the jump on Jane, initially anyway. Seeing her tied up like that… Wiling never wanted to see it again. All this time they thought they were stronger together but were they really? If the past four years had showed Will anything, it was that no, Jane would be better off without him.

Storing his stuff in the cabin he sat down on the other side of the door and warmed up the potion in his hands. It was now or never. He closed his eyes and briefly documented all the feelings he’d never experience again. Jane would never see him again. She would be heartbroken – they were all each other had. It would be painful too, he knew that, but less painful that if the facility ever caught them. She would forget him eventually. So would Dustin, hopefully, first loves never lasted anyway. It was selfish of Will to make himself such an important part of Dustin’s life anyway; it seemed Will couldn’t stop being selfish.

It was fine though, from today there’d be no more of that.

No more sleepovers with his siter where they marvelled at how amazing their new life was. No more sneaking out to go see Dustin and pretending that Joyce didn’t know exactly what he was doing. No more family movie nights when both he and Jonathan would make fun of Joyce for crying at animated animals un till she laughed. He hoped his family knew that he loved them, especially Joyce. She saved him and he never even got to call her ‘mum’, he knows she would have liked that. Hindsight is a wonderful and morose thing.

Will popped the lid of the vial and took a drink.


End file.
